A 16-year-old fisherman netted two giant bull trout last fall, breaking two separate length world records kept by the International Gamefish Association (IGFA) in the process. According to recently released IGFA records, Ryder Humphries landed the “junior all-tackle length world record” on November 2, 2025 and the conventional “all-tackle length world record” a few days later on November 7.
Both of the fish measured roughly 25.5 inches or 70 centimeters in length. Logan Exton, IGFA’s Angler Recognition Coordinator, tells F&S that Humphries’ bull trout from November 2 went down as the all-tackle youth record, while his November 7 trout claimed the overall all-tackle length record. Because the trout were caught on conventional lures, they’re recognized separately from the fly-fishing length record for the species—a 31.8 incher caught by Bo Nelson in Fernie, British Columbia in 2011.
Exton says Humphries was fishing a pink grub on a jig head when he landed the youth record on November 2. Then he hooked the overall length record just five days later on a Krocodile Spoon in a rainbow-trout pattern.
A Rare Native
Critically endangered throughout much of the their North American range thanks to development and warming waters, bull trout are adept predators that feed almost exclusively on other fish once they reach adulthood. They grow big and fast thanks to their fish-heavy diet and voracious feeding patterns. The fish tend to migrate to headwater streams to spawn in the fall before moving back into lakes during winter months.
The Bow River—where Humphries caught and released his record-breaking bull trout—is a scenic, glacier-fed river that flows through the heart of Banff National Park. It’s a premier fishing destination more famous for its hard-fighting rainbows and trophy-sized browns than its native bull trout.
The biggest bull trout in the IGFA record books weighed a whopping 32 pounds. Angler N. Higgins caught that fish in Idaho’s Lake Pend Orielle in 1949.
THE 1871 CLUB
